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A Brief Moment of Excitement at China’s Party Congress

China’s Communist Party Congresses are the province of the middle-aged and the elderly, the latter typically striving to look more like the former through the application of jet-black hair dye. Experience has taught these veterans of Chines politics to stick the script, making press conferences drab affairs capable of putting even the Party’s own senior figures to sleep.

So it was understandable that the appearance of two people still firmly in possession of youth at a panel discussion on the 3rd day of this year’s 18th Party Congress sent waves of excitement rippling through the room, even if those appearances seemed equally as scripted as the rest of the day’s proceedings.

The first to appear ws Fu Wentao, a rising star from China’s State Oceanic Administration. Mr. Fu, 30, recently rose to fame in China for piloting the Jiaolong, a deep-sea submersible, to a depth of 7,062 meters during a dive into the Pacific Ocean’s Mariana Trench — a feat previously accomplished by only 10 other people, according to state media reports.

Following two hours of speeches by central government officials during which the room’s collective heart beat dropped perilously close to a flat line, the session’s moderator, Secretary-General of State Council Ma Kai, gave Mr. Fu the chance to make the last speech. The quiet room awakened as cameramen stood up to focus their lenses on the “oceanaut” hero.

Mr. Fu’s comments largely echoed those of the speakers before him, launching with a statement for his “unswerving support” of President Hu Jintao’s report from the first day of the congress, a blueprint for policymakers’ intentions the next years. He also detailed the achievements of the Jiaolong adventures and the country’s discovery of two new ocean species.

It wasn’t his words but his delivery that commanded the room: Mr. Fu’s voice boomed like that of a military officer. “We’ll resolutely defend our ocean rights!” he said, in an apparent reference to China’s ongoing territorial disputes with Japan and several countries in the South China Sea.

The Chinese officials, also awake by now, awarded him with the session’s only full round of applause.

Chao Deng/The Wall Street Journal

Sun Luyuan (R), 11, poses with another reporter from the Chinese Teenager News after she lit up a panel at China’s 18th Party Congress with a question about food safety.

The room settled back into a state of half-slumber during the following Q&A session, but was soon reawakened with the appearance at the microphone of Sun Luyuan, an 11-year-old reporter from the weekly newspaper Chinese Teenager News,

Dressed in a pink fleece, red vest and the red scarf symbolizing youth loyalty to the Communist Party, the young Ms. Sun stood up in the room and fired a sharp question to the dozens of officials at the event.

“I love eating snacks but I don’t dare eat them now, because of all the news reports about problems with our food,” she said. “Some foods have been found to contain excess bacteria, others excess additives. How it is possible that these foods are allowed to be sold? How can we eat and feel safe?”

The middle schooler’s confident tone and straightforward question on a major issue of concern in China prompted approving chuckles from other reporters in the room.

The excitement faded, however, with an anodyne answer from Yuan Guiren, China’s education minister. “We will continue to improve the situation to ensure the safety of students,” he said. “Apart from food, two other important things for students are sleep and exercise. We will further improve our watch of the physical health of children and release information about their physical condition.”

The Communist Party has been at pains to connect with regular people, particularly young people, many of whom seem increasingly to see China’s ruling party as out-of-touch. State media have trumpeted the efforts of younger Communist Party officials and Party Congress delegates to embrace social media as a means of communicating with the masses. Yet many of the country’s Internet users have dismissed such efforts as wooden and ineffective.

Some of the same disappointment was visible after Friday’s panel, when reporters peppered Sun Luyuan with questions about her appearance. “Why did you ask this question? …Do you think the minister answered your question? …Do you think this problem will get fixed?” one local reporter asked Sun Luyuan, outside the press room following the event.

In response, the student delivered a glowing assessment of Mr. Yang’s response. “He answered it and I could feel the minister’s concern for us,” she said. “He talked very in depth, saying that he would together with other departments fix this problem… It’s for the country’s future so it will get solved.”

According to a report appearing on the website of the state-run Xinhua news agency, Sun was one of three young reporters sent by China Teenagers News to cover the Party Congress. The story quoted Chang Jiang, the group’s chaperone, as saying the three reporters were selected based on merit to represent 360 million young children in China. “Don’t look at how young we are,” Chang said. “We are also of the ‘regular army’.”